Miscellaneous Mondays: Amazing Amazon idea

Take note Amazon. Here is an amazing idea that I wish was already in place to make my buying experience even better:

First you take a questionnaire that works to pair you up with a personality (or real person) who will be your authoritative on purchasing. This person will have similar tastes as you and will have bought many of the products you are looking for. They will be able to pick which one they liked best and why. They are like the Costco of Amazon, bringing down your choices to one or two so that you know they are the best products for YOU!

Your authoritative personality can even suggest items you might like based on their own interest, as it is similar to your own. Not just “because you bought this” -> “you might like this” or “other people who bought this item” -> “also bought these items” but “because your persona says this product is awesome, you might like it.”

What do you think? Could it work? Would you use this service or would it bug you?

There are so many different products out there and sometimes too many reviews of any one product (good and bad reviews) to be able to make a knowledgeable decision. This service would break through this issue and give you a person to follow in their decisions. For example, you are looking for a bread machine. They range from the $70 cheap one to the $300 Zojirushi. What does your authoritative figure have to say? There aren’t any “top 500 Amazon reviewer” reviews on this product. Without this service, I figured out my purchasing decision by going to Google, finding reviews on blogs, and reviews on Amazon. The clincher for how I bought the bread machine that I did was the multiple reviews on Amazon for one bread machine that told me to buy another specific machine, so I did.